‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant loses almost $10K in prizes due to technicality

One “Wheel of Fortune” contestant lost out on some major prize money due to a strict technicality in the rules.

The mistake happened on the game show Thursday night during a crossword puzzle game, which requires contestants to list each word that appears in the puzzle. Kristen Shaw faced off against contestants Bryan Idler and Jessie Pankow in the crossword game, and the words became obvious when it came around to Shaw’s turn: ”right,” “left” “Sally” and “football.”

“Say everything, don’t add anything, go ahead,” host Pat Sajak said before Shaw said her answer.

“Right, football, left, and Sally,” Shaw said.

But because she added the conjunction “and” to her answer, Shaw’s answer ended with “and” instead of “Sally,” according to the rules. That mistake cost her $1,950 and a trip to Nashville worth more than $8,000.

Idler won the round after realizing Shaw’s mistake, earning $3,550.

Sajak felt bad for Shaw: “Most times I caution people not to add anything, and then you maybe didn’t even hear yourself say it, but you threw an ‘and’ in there with the last thing and we have to go by the rules. And the rules are that Bryan gets that money.”

Shaw still walked away with her third-place cash prize of $3,000 at the end of the episode, with Idler coming in second at $10,550 and Pankow winning the whole thing at $16,728.

Per “Wheel of Fortune,” contestants are “thoroughly briefed prior to the show” on the rules and Sajak “often reminds them of this rule when solving a puzzle in this particular category.”

But some fans were not happy with the results of the crossword puzzle round, taking to social media to criticize the rule.

“The ‘and’ rule is garbage. She deserved Nashville!” @Drone637 tweeted.

“Utterly ridiculous that you didn’t give credit to Kristen for the ___ field puzzle because she said ‘and’ before the last word of the list” @NeuroVixen tweeted. ”Functionally no different from the pauses you allow. You know she knew the puzzle @WheelofFortune. Not cool.”

Another social media user lamented the rule. “The ‘and’ trap on #WheelOfFortune crosswords. Oh man!” tweeted @8BallZen.

Read more at usatoday.com.